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Living Wood vs. The Living Weapon: Ayatsuri vs. Agnihem
Wanderings "Clack, Clack, Clack, Clack" the mechanical sound of a moving puppet shattered the silence of the peaceful plains and a large metallic scorpion was seen picking it's way over the landscape, a stark contrast to the subtle greens and browns of the landscape. The young man manipulating it from its back seemed even more out of place, his jet black hair messily framing his face and his attire seeming to enhance his dark demeanor. The man's single icy blue eye alert, picking every detail from his surroundings. The man's partner on the other hand seemed to be aloof his eyes were lowered slightly, giving him a lazy look that was made worse by his seemingly relaxed posture and the casual toying with the hilt of his katana. He looked to the man on the scorpion, his voice silken and quiet yet with a steel undertone "Suri-kun, who shall get the next opponent we come across? It seems as if the fortune hunters have been rather scarce lately, maybe we've scared them off". Ayatsuri chuckled slightly before speaking, his voice lighter and more cheery than his partners "No idea... Rock-paper-scissors Shiro-sama?" Heishiro nodded, his face comically serious as he held out his fist at the same moment as Ayatsuri and they both did the child's chant "Yán, Yán, Pa!". Heishiro chose rock, Ayatsuri paper. Ayatsuri grinned, laughing as he waved his hand about making the scorpion dance as well "I'll take the next one Shiro-sama". Heishiro shrugged and continued walking, his voice floating over his shoulder to Ayatsuri "Won't be too long before you get him either" What the hell is that noise? the thought echoed across Agnihem's mind the same way a constant clacking sound echoed across the grassy plains he was. It had started out as a faint noise, fairly far off in the distance, but the more the Hidden Mist walked, apparently the closer to the source of the sound he got, for it just got louder and louder. Then he saw it in the distance, a large, mechanical scorpion trudging it's way towards his general direction. On the back of the scorpion stood a single person. Curious to discover the identity of the apparent puppet master, Agnihem dragged a gloved hand through his stark white hair before performing a simple transformation technique, giving him the appearance of a simple trader. "Let's see if you have a bounty on your head my friend." he muttered to himself as he continued walking toward his new "prey". Heishiro smirks slightly as he picks up a small exertion of chakra, and larger source. He calls over his shoulder to Ayatsuri "Suri-kun, we have a bit of company." Ayatsuri simply nods and hops off his scorpion before activating one of it's mechanisms, opening the containment area in it's back and taking out his puppet Sakkaku and attaching his to it's body and it immediately disappears from view as he looks to Heishiro "Shiro-sama, which direction?" Heishiro simply lifts his arm and points, Ayatsuri sends the invisible Sakkaku trailing in that direction as he hops back on to his scorpion Āmādo-jishi. He manipulates Sakkaku with a single finger with his other chakra strings attached to his other puppets and his scorpion, disguising the fact that he's manipulating multiple puppets with the fact that only one is clearly visible. Ayatsuri grins "Hey, Shiro-sama. If this is anyone interesting... They're mine." Heishiro simply raises a hand, keeping his eyes fixed in the direction of the chakra he had picked up. "Suri-kun, it would appear to be trader. Keep Sakkaku near him though, never too careful" There was something nearby. Agnihem didn't know if it was paranoia, the supposed sixth sense veteran warriors got from countless battles, or his mediocre at best ability to sense chakra, but he knew that there was something nearby. Now that he was closer, Agnihem could clearly make out the person on the scorpion, Ayatsuri Ningyō, a S-class criminal and puppet master. Which probably meant that the presence he was feeling was one of his puppets. There was another person next to the scorpion, Heishiro, another S-class criminal. Agnihem thought a moment if it was worth trying to capture these two. While they were technically criminals they were essentially welcomed wherever they went. Might as well challenge them. If I win and capture them then I get a nice pay raise. If not I get some good fighting experience. With that decided Agnihem carefully drew a kunai and wrapped an explosive tag around the hilt, while giving himself a small nick on his thumb. With that he continued walking toward them. Brief Exchange Heishiro raised a hand in greeting as he saw the man come into clearer view and his amber eyes shone with anticipation as he ran them over the man's form, rapidly scanning for weapons of any sort. Ayatsuri began chuckling as he called out a greeting to the man "Oi! Stranger-san, you wouldn't happen to know a person of interest would you? Any one with a bit of fight in them?" Heishiro simply shook his head as he continued evaluating the man and his hand slowly went to the hilt of his katana, the motion smooth and deliberate to serve as both a warning of suspicion and a signal of a veteran swordsman. Ayatsuri spotted the movement from the corner of his eye and grinned, for Heishiro was rarely suspicious without reason. He kept Sakkaku a few paces ahead of him, its katana drawn and ready for interception should the man make the slightest of offensive movements. Agnihem smirked at Ayatsuri's question. Between that and Heishiro's placement of his hand on the hilt of his sword, it was pretty obvious that they either knew or were at least suspicious. Channeling chakra to his bleeding hand, he started gathering the blood leaking from his thumb on his palm. As he gathered his best surprise attack, Agnihem scanned the area for any hidden threats. While he couldn't see anything, his nose was picking up a strange scent a few feet in front of him. "Good day to you." Agnihem called, playing along with them for now. "As it so happens I do know someone who would greatly desire a fight." As he spoke, Agnihem readied his throwing arm and divided the blood gathering in his palm into nine equal drops. "And that person would be..." During his pause Agnihem let his transformation drop, showing them his true form, "me." With that Agnihem threw his explosive kunai at Ayatsuri and readied himself. The Battle Begins Heishiro simply nods to Ayatsuri and there is a displacement of wind as he disappears from view, appearing roughly ten paces away to simply watch as the events progress. Ayatsuri grins and flips from his scorpion as three balls of flame launch from its mouth to intercept the kunai as a shimmer is seen in the air and Sakkaku appears above Agnihem, slashing downwards with its katana in a smooth arc. The puppets' movements were more like those of living beings than that of rigid puppets, every motion smooth and fluid, a testament to Ayatsuri's skill with his creations. Ayatsuri's laughter rings out, genuinely happy and light, before he speaks "Stranger-san hopefully you'll make this interesting. I am Ayatsuri Ningyō also known as Ningyō wa ikimono masutā, the Puppet Master of Living Things. Although I would assume you knew that, correct?" Agnihem quickly side stepped away from the puppet's swing, and slapped another expolive tag onto the puppet's back as he ran past it around the scorpion, towards Ayatsuri. "Yeah I knew that, and I must say the nickname is well earned." Agnihem replied upon hearing his opponent's question. As he spoke Agnihem opened his palm and fired three of the nine blood bullets on his palm. "And the name is Agnihem." Ayatsuri simply raises a hand as if waving before ducking backwards as the scorpions tail comes slashing in a wide arc towards Agnihem, colliding with the bullets along the way. "Well met Agni-san" Ayatsuri immediately began speaking to the man as if they were familiar friends "I take it that you're well? Watch yourself" He twitches a finger and a rapid volley of senbon laced with a numbing agent are fired from Sakkaku, skillfully positioned behind Ayatsuri at an angle so as to not catch Ayatsuri in the crossfire. Agnihem ducked under the scorpion's swinging tail, but was unable to avoid most of the senbon that buried themselves into his left leg. He felt the numbing effects almost instantly as he threw a smoke bomb at his feet. Once he was hidden in the smoke, Agnihem sent chakra down to his rapidly numbing leg and "awakened" the blood in it. The needles popped out of his leg as the afflicted blood siphoned itself out of his leg and froze into small blood crystals. "I can use these." he whispered gently placing them into his coats pocket. "So what's my next move?" he wondered aloud as he made a one handed signal, igniting the bomb he placed on the puppet that shot him. Ayatsuri frowned as Sakkaku exploded leaving the puppet incapable of moving and he ran to his puppet's side as he manipulated the scorpion into firing two of his own smoke bombs into the cloud, the explosive tags igniting immediately. Assessing the damage and firing a barrage of senbon from the scorpion into the cloud, hoping to keep Agnihem occupied. He quickly began a set of repairs, removing the most damaged parts and stimulating the regrowth with a flow of chakra. Agnihem had roughly a second before the explosive tag wrapped smoke bombs would detonate, releasing an additional cloud of smoke laced with his neurotoxin. Agnihem burst from the smoke cloud the instant before the bombs fired by the scorpion detonated, firing two more of his blood bullets at Ayatsuri, the senbon fired at him were sticking out of his thick blue coat, biting into it but not penetrating through it. A blood soaked kunai was held in his other hand. Ayatsuri swayed, one bullet flying centimeters from his face as the other strikes him in his right shoulder and he grins at the brief sensation of throbbing pain. He smiles and it would seem as if he suddenly were lighter, settling his weight on the balls of his feet as his voice rings out "Light Step". He disappears from view, appearing soundlessly next to his scorpion as the containment compartment opens and Satsujin sits up before climbing out. Ayatsuri stands controlling three of his four most used puppets, a devilish grin spreads as he begins formulating strategies. Satsujin charges forward, darting from left to right at random as if the puppet itself was a veteran warrior. It pulls up short suddenly, deploying a rapid barrage of smokebombs composed of a highly flammable gas around Agnihem before darting into the cloud, Ayatsuri intending to wreak havoc with its claws at close range. Agnihem jumped to the side, seeking to escape from the cloud. While he was in the air, the claws of Ayatsuri's Satsujin tore through his left shoulder blade. The pain was quickly numbed by the neurotoxin, that was taking effect on upper left side of Agnihem's body. After a quick tumbling on the ground outside of the cloud of gas, Agnihem pulled himself to his feet, his left arm hanging limply, dropping the blood soaked kunai. "Have you ever considered a medical career? Because whatever your coating those blades with is one hell of a pain killer." As he spoke the blood leaking from his new wound gathered and formed itself into a tentacle, his chakra siphoning the neurotoxin into the tentacle. Now the left part of his body was numb for a completely different reason, as well as much paler skin. Agnihem crouched down and prepared to leap at his opponent. Ayatsuri grins "That neurotoxin has a much worse bite than you would think, and that blood will have to go back inside you eventually right? The human body has a very limited supply." With that he raised on hand while lowering the other and moving his right index finger to the left. His puppets responded instantly, Sakkaku leaping above Agnihem and loosing a barrage of senbon as it swings its blade downward in a powerful arc, his scorpion burrows underground, and Satsujin darts to the left before circling right and loosing a barrage of smokebombs laced with the flammable gas as it slashes with its claws. Each of the senbon fired by Sakkaku had a razor-sharp garote wire attached to the end, intended to either restrict movement or slice through skin. Heishiro raised an eyebrow as he recognized the coordinated attack, cocking his head slightly he chuckled to himself "Lurking Lion formation... Well... We'll get to see how quick Agnihem can think on his feet at least" Agnihem was just a fraction of a second too slow as the garrot wired senbon wrapped themselves around his body, forcing him to the ground. While he lay on the ground the gas bombs, blew up covering him, and the puppets that were moving in to gore him. Fortunately Agnihem's hands were bound together so he was able to weave the handsigns for Fire Release: Wall of Flame, not knowing the gas was flammable. The resulting explosion was naturally quite large. Ayatsuri and Heishiro both whistle at the explosion, shaking their heads slowly. Heishiro mutters to himself "He better not have died from that explosion..." Ayatsuri muttered "He better not have damaged my puppets with that explosion..." Ayatsuri began moving his puppets once more, knowing that Satsujin was unharmed due to the durability and fire-resistant properties of its body. Sakkaku on the other hand was damaged, but not severely so due to the lightweight durable wood it was made of it had been tossed by the explosion. Bringing Sakkaku back to his side, Ayatsuri waited for the smoke to clear simply calling out "If you're dead tell me now, otherwise get back up Agni-san" "You got give my shadow clone one thing." Agnihem said appearing behind Ayaturi, the blood soaked kunai from earlier once again in his hand. "He knows how to go out with a bang." Once he finished speaking, he stabbed the kunai for Atasuri's shoulder blade. Ayatsuri simply nods, a single finger moving upwards and another to the right. Sakkaku intercepting the kunai, parrying the stab with his own at the same moment that the scorpion burst from the ground firing a rapid barrage of three fireballs and a large amount of senbon before slashing with the poisoned scythe on its tail. "I have many eyes Agni-san, don't let appearances fool you." As he spoke two of his chakra threads snaked towards Agni, invisible to the eye as he attempted to establish a connection. Burying the kunai into the wood of the puppet in front of him, Agnihem used the hande of the knife to gain some leverage over the puppet and repostioned it to take the brunt of the scorpions attack. Then after planting his feet on the puppets body he used it as a launch pad and shot himself towards Ayatsuri. While he was sailing towards his targets he rapidly performed the hand signs for Genjutsu: Demonic Presence. Ayatsuri smiles slightly as he releases his puppets and shifts his weight once more, "Light Step". Ayatsuri launches himself into the air before his hands rapidly form the Horse and Tiger hand seals before he expels a large ball of fire aimed just in front of Agnihem, employing Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique to both serve the purpose of damaging or distracting Agnihem and launching Ayatsuri higher into the air. Ayatsuri smiles at the same instant that Heishiro begins shaking his head, Ayatsuri forming a strategy and Heishiro predicting the movements that would follow. The fireball shot by Ayatsuri blasted the ground right infront of Agnihem, flinging him backwards, but not breaking his concentration on the genjutsu he was casting. "What do you fear the most?" he asked as he performed the final hand sign and locked eyes with his target. Ayatsuri brings his hands up quickly and in the same instant realizes it is too late, eye contact had already been established. He draws a single senbon and waits, not knowing what illusion would follow. He closes his eye and shifts his position slightly, confident in his grip on reality and his abilities in Genjutsu. He speaks slowly and surely, his voice perfectly level "I fear naught but the impermanence of my art, not even death is able to inspire fear in me." "I suppose that's true enough." Agnihem said as he made numerous shadow clones to make his illusion feel real, "Nothing is but death lasts forever. Even the strong wood of you puppets will come to rot someday." As he spoke three of his shadow clones rushed foreward. If Ayatsuri were to open his eye he'd see an army of deranged and demonic puppet's rushing towards him. Agnihem continued speaking through his clones, trying to break Ayatsuri's concentration as the first set of clones attacked withkunai and shuriken. "I'd be lying if I said the concept of death didin't inspire fear in me sometimes. Every mortal at some level fears death, it's why we fight to survive." Ayatsuri shakes his head, smiling slightly before he speaks "True art, the art of the Greats, is eternal. It continues to inspire and shape the minds of those who view it even after the original vessel is gone. The 'art' that fades is nothing more than a passing shadow, my art shall last and through it I shall be made immortal." With that Ayatsuri weaves a strange hand sign, his right hand forming the right-hand sign of the Boar hand seal and the left forms the left-hand side of Ram. "True art never fades and through it, neither shall I. Now... Witness one of my masterpieces, a true form of art." Ayatsuri hesitates before opening his eye and speaking a single word "Merry". There was a rush of wind as Merry appears in front of Ayatsuri, grinning as she looks at Agnihem. She giggles as she hops from foot to foot, each time landing on the balls of her feet. Her voice is sweet and somewhat intoxicating, as if the words are honey that drips down with each syllable. "I finally get to play again" Merry twirls on her right foot, "I hardly ever get to play since he's always so busy with his fancy puppets and doesn't have time for his little dolly any more." She grins and her eyes seem to flash, their strange crimson coloration seeming to glow and draw in all who caught her gaze, "But you're a handsome one... So I guess I'll play with you." Merry giggles once more as she stands by Ayatsuri, apparently guarding him until he breaks the Genjutsu. "Play with me huh?" Agnihem repeated to himself as his shadow clones flashed through the hand signs for , "Any other time a woman telling me that would be a good thing." As the clones launched the jutsu at Ayatsuri and the newly summoned Merry, Agnihem reached into his coat pocket and withdrew one of the frozen blood crystals that contained the blood afflicted by Ayatsuri's neurotoxin. Quickly comeing with a few contingency plans Agnihem rushed forward. Merry giggles as she twirls on the ball of her right foot, rapidly forming orange balls of flame in the palms of her hands and throwing them just in below the approaching flames. The ensuing explosion disperses the flames of the opposing jutsu by rapidly burning up the air the flames would use. Merry smiles as she forms more flames in the palms of her hands, sending a rapid barrage aimed at Agnihem and his clones, displaying her mastery of the technique. Ayatsuri remains quiet and calm, forming a strange sequence of hand seals and placing his hand over the patch on his missing eye before whispering "Break". Ayatsuri rapidly dispelled the Genjutsu, using the focusing technique he had learned early on in his life. Ayatsuri stands behind Merry and smiles slightly, knowing that she would be a suitable distraction and a challenge in herself. He takes two steps out from behind her, showing himself to Agnihem before sprinting towards his puppets without the aid of any supplementary jutsu. Let's see if he gives chase, he thought as he was highly confident in his own speed. Agnihem's clones flashed through the hand signs for the fire wall jutsu, creating a barrier of flames just before the fireballs launched by Merry hit. The opposing fires cancelled one another, allowing for Agnihem to continue toward his targets unhindered. When he noticed Ayatsuri break off towards his puppets, he tossed the blood crystal to one of his clones and had it and two others pursue him at their top speed. Meanwhile he withdrew a kunai and systematically pricked the tip of each of his fingers. Blood dripping from each of his fingers, Agnihem fire ten blood bullets at Merry, while his remaining clones flanked her from either side. As Agnihem's clones closed in on Ayatsuri, two of them tossed several kunai with exploding tags on them just ahead of the fleeing ninja while holding the poisoned blood crystal rushed on ahead preparing to ram the improvised weapon into Ayatsuri. Ayatsuri smiles as he flashes through the hand seals for Fire Release: Single Point Burst the blast meeting the kunai and exploding tags head on. The ensuing shockwave knocks Ayatsuri off his feet and he lands a few feet away, rolling with the impact and wincing at the pang in his right shoulder. The explosion having put a bit of distance between Ayatsuri and the clones he rapidly makes use of Light Step, propelling himself into the air and dismissing Merry an instant before re-calling her to his side. Merry and Ayatsuri flash through the seals for Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique before they each output a large ball of flame aimed at Merry's previous location. Merry giggles and Ayatsuri grins as their voices mesh for a brief moment "Combination Strike: Merry Demise", the flames merge forming one large ball of roaring flame as it approaches its target. Heishiro simply watches from a short distance, sniffing the air slightly and turning his head to see a large wolf that would appear to be an alpha approaching. Heishiro smiles and sits on the ground as the wolf lays next to him, looking more like an overly large dog than a feral predator capable of killing in an instant. Heishiro runs a hand through its fur as they both watch the bout, each cocking their heads slightly as they watch the large ball of flame. Agnihem and his clones slid to a halt when Merry disapeared. When they turned to see the approaching firestorm, his clones nodded before they each drew a kunai across their bellies, spilling a fair amount of blood from them while Agnihem weaved the signs for his, arguably, most risky jutsu, Blood Release: Blood Wall. Once he weaved the final sign a massive amount of blood erupted from the clones, and a fair bit from himself, and gathered in front of him. The wall finished forming an instant before the fireball hit. The resulting explosion threw Agnihem away and forced all of his clones to vanish in a poof a smoke. When the dust settled, Agnihem was laying on his stomach, drenched in the blood used by the jutsu. Ayatsuri rapidly descends, landing lightly on his feet next to his puppets as he gives Merry to order to simply stand guard and intercept if need be. Ayatsuri selects Sakkaku and his scorpion before strolling closer to Agnihem and waiting roughly 10 meters away. Ayatsuri rolls his right shoulder, popping it a few times as he looks down and frowns, noticing a deep slash to his side. He sighs and shakes his head, figuring that there must have been a chunk of shrapnel in the explosion he had created earlier. He applies pressure to the wound as he waits for Agnihem to stand and thinks I'll have to finish this quickly, would hate to bleed out during a fight... Horrible way to lose. "If you can fight hurry up and stand Agni-san" he twitches a finger and Sakkaku readies itself as his scorpion slides in front of Ayatsuri, serving as a makeshift shield. As Ayatsuri spoke, Agnihem's teeth pressed against each other, crushing the he kept stored on his back molar. As the pill replenished his blood supply, Agnihem awoke from the mini coma he he was in. Pain lanced through his fingers as he pushed himself off the ground. With strained eyes he looked at Ayatusri and his puppets and saw the small amount of blood leaking from his side. "My fingers feel like they've been flayed open." he complained looking at his bloodied fingers, "But I guess it can't be helped." With that a slender tendril of blood emerged from each finger. Still that blood wall took a lot out of me. This fight is going to have end soon. Otherwise... well it won't be good for me. With slow measured steps Agnihem approached his opponent. Ayatsuri nods before dismissing Merry, his pride telling him to make it a fair fight. He pops his shoulder once more as he looks at Agnihem and his eye seems slightly colder than before "You realize that if you want the bounty on my head you'll have to kill me, I'm not wanted alive. I would also hope that you realize that I don't plan on dying anytime soon" with that he releases his puppets, walking over to his scorpion and removing his katana from it's storage compartment. "This blade is one of the few that are not coated with my neurotoxin, for Shiro-sama over there insists that it is 'unforgivable' to coat at sword in poison. Now mind you I am in a weakened state and I do not wish to bleed out so we'll have to make this quick." He pours water onto the blade, leaving it dripping as he turns back and walks toward Agnihem. "Water dilutes blood doesn't it? Mixing other things into your blood should lessen your control over it... Am I correct?" Agnihem shrugged as he slid his heavy blue coat off of his shoulders, "I honestly wouldn't know, no ones ever tried to cut off my blood techniques like that." As he spoke he drew back the blood tendrils into his fingers, wincing at the stinging sensation, and drew his last two kunai knives. "As for bleeding out, might I recomend keeping a stash of blood pills for such an occasion. That is of course if you beat me." Spinning the kunai by the rings on their hilts, he grabbed them in a reversed hold and rushed forward, trying to read Ayatsuri's next move based on the tension in his muscles. "Besides, you know the saying , Blood is thicker than water." Ayatsuri closes his eye "Blood pills... I may just have to procure some from you. Now... Blood may be thicker, but water dilutes all. Let's see what happens... Shall we?" Ayatsuri darts forward before feinting to the left and using Light Step to rush to his right side, on the edge of his peripheral vision, as he aims a quick slash just behind his right knee. Agnihem smirked as he spun, kocking the sword away with one kunai and slicing for Ayatsuri's chest with the other. "Seeing how you guys believe it to be a sin to use a poisoned hand held blade I must apologize." A puff of smoke is seen as a perfectly square block of wood is seen in Ayatsuri's place, the block takes the attack and the blade catches in the wood. The bottom of the box drops out and two of the smoke bombs from Ayatsuri's scorpion drop out, rolling to a rest at Agnihem's feet. Roughly two seconds remained before the smoke bombs wrapped in explosive tags would detonate and release a cloud of smoke laced with Ayatsuri's neurotoxin. That leaves me six more... Two with me and four others inside Āmādo-jishi... Strategy... Strategy... Got it! Ayatsuri thinks as he watches the smoke bombs drop out from behind his scorpion, completely stationary since his Chakra Threads weren't attached. He winces slightly and looks down, seeing the flow of blood resuming. It must have been reopened from that Light Step... I'll have to be a bit more cautious... He presses on the wound as he grips his katana, waiting to hear the explosion before making his next move These things again? Agnihem asked himself before substituting himself with one of Ayatsuri's smaller puppets leaving the one stuck inside the box behind. When Agnihem reappeared he pulled enough blood from his fingers to freeze and make a slender knife with it. His hand throbbed as it round the cold hilt of the blood knife. With a determined expression Agnihem readied himself for Ayatsuri's next attack. Ayatsuri shifts slightly as he hears the explosion and attaches a single chakra string to his scorpion, keeping it completely stationary as he takes its vision using his Ningyōtsukai: Vision technique. He moves the eyes slightly, focusing and refocusing on the smoke cloud as he picks up a still form laying in a heap on the ground. There's no way that killed him... So where is he... Ayatsuri smiles slightly as he removes his chakra string from his scorpion and regains his own vision. He quickly forms two and silently gives the order for one to find him and immediately disperse itself and the other to keep him busy for as long as possible. The clones immediately use Light Step to rapidly cover ground as they search for Agnihem. Ayatsuri sighs quietly and lays his head back, his mind alert but resting his body for a brief moment. Category:Role-Play Category:Role-Play Battles